Friday, June 3, 2011

Meet the mother who eats three boxes of corn starch a day: New show reveals America's weirdest food addictions

By TAMARA ABRAHAM

Craving: Nikki Myles who stars in Freaky Eaters, loves corn starch so much, she eats it straight from the box

Most people struggle to use a box of corn starch in a month, but one woman's bizarre addiction sees her eat up to 2lb of the thickening agent every day.

Nikki Myles who is profiled in the latest series of TLC's Freaky Eaters, loves corn starch so much, she eats it from the box with a spoon.

The 34-year-old, who consumes up to 3,300 calories a day, reveals in a clip from the show how the addiction first started when she was pregnant 16 years ago. Before long she was eating three boxes a day.

Emotional eating: Mrs Myles addiction worsened after the death of her youngest son

She said: 'Mostly people when they're pregnant will crave pickles and ice cream, things like that, but my craving was corn starch.'

'Corn starch is soft, it's very fine. It is so so good, I can't stop eating it.'

She told how she had managed to keep the problem under control, but when her youngest son died four years ago, the addiction spiralled out of control.

Compelling story: Kelly, 34, has eaten nothing but cheese-covered potatoes for the past 30 years

She told the Today show: 'She started eating dirt when she was young. She has pica, which is a zinc and iron deficiency. And then it got triggered by her pregnancy.'

Thanks to the help of Ms Virgin and psychotherapist Mike Dow, who also tackled the emotional reasons behind the problem, Mrs Myles life has been transformed since the show.

Traumatic: In one scene Kelly's husband tries to make her eat a vegetable - but she begins gagging before it even touches her lips, and the experiment ends in tears

One of the most compelling is probably the story of Kelly, also 34, who has eaten nothing but cheese-covered potatoes for 30 years.

Her monotonous diet sees her consume around eight potatoes and four cups of cheese each day, amounting to a staggering daily intake of 8,000 calories and 176g of fat.

She admits: 'It's definitely more than food, it's like crack to me. I've got to have it.'

So extreme is her habit that she can't stand the smell or even touch most other foods, and has to leave the kitchen when her husband of seven years is cooking for himself.

In one scene he tries to make her eat a vegetable - but she begins gagging before it even touches her lips, and the experiment ends in tears.'It's traumatic for me,' she explains.